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My body is shutting down on me, so this is very much my last post for the day. Tons to cover, I know, but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

The Cubs will make/have made three roster moves for tonight’s game, bringing up catching Welington Castillo, who will platoon with Steve Clevenger for the rest of the year, infielder Adrian Cardenas, and pitcher Casey Coleman, who’ll get the first crack at taking Ryan Dempster’s vacated spot in the rotation.

At some point, I suppose they’ll bring up another pitcher, who will go into the bullpen (since Justin Germano has moved into the rotation (for now)).

I hate to state the obvious, but it kind of just dawned on me after the trade frenzy has died down. The Cubs are going to go lose quite a few more games the second half. It has been a nice little run of late. I almost forgot what April, May, and June were like.

Pay now to party later I guess.

Well done today Brett

cjdubbya

If Hendricks turns into a Maddux, or Vizcaino turns into a durable, super long-term version of Aroldis Chapman, and they’re integral pieces of a World Series, this will all be just a memory. Stings right now, probably going to hurt a lot more in the next couple months, but let’s hope it pans out.

Kyle

Dear every Cubs fan ever:

Maddux threw in the low 90s most of his career. He did not have a bad fastball.

Love,
Kyle

Scotti

Thank you! FWIW, that was when low 90’s meant something, too. When Maddux first came up, radar guns used to time pitches crossing the plate (they switched to read the ball coming out of the pitcher’s hand–the JUGS gun–for a couple mph difference). For a while you had to ask what kind of gun was used to get the reading.

It should also be pointed out that when a sentence begins with “If player X turns into any HOF player” (much less a first-ballet HOF starting pitcher) the rest of the sentence balances on the point of a needle.

Edwin

Thank you! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought the same thing. It’s actually one of my pet peeves when any prospect is compared to a HOF player based on “similarities” in their skill set.

Jack Weiland

Could not agree more on the HOF thing … expecting every prospect to turn into the best case scenario (or better!) is unreasonable. If Hendricks turns into a back of the rotation starter I’ll be pleased. Vizcaino is a lottery ticket, and a shiny one, who could be something awesome or nothing at all. If he’s “just” a solid late inning, high leverage reliever that’s nothing to sneeze at. Especially considering he was aquired for spare parts on a bad team and they have all kinds of team control on him.

MaxM1908

Awesome, Kyle. Well said.

cjdubbya

I meant more the seemingly pinpoint control – 15 walks in over 100 innings seems pretty impressive. If that sort of success were to carry over to the majors, that’s a great pickup for the Cubs.

Jack Weiland

It’s very good control, but you have to consider that he’s old for his level, and he’s doing that at High-A. There are many, many steps between there and the Major League level.

baldtaxguy

What stings? Dempster for two months would have provided you with……___________?

I will say a lower 2013 draft pick, and pool $$. Maybe a cute quote at the end of the season.

For a two month rental, and for a player who disadvantaged the Cubs with his 10/5 rights, two additions to the system is such a great return.

steve

We will lose short term, but we’re gonna be in a better situation overall. In his short time here Theo has moved older guys like dempster, Z, reed, soto, and maholm, who he brought in & flipped for a nice return. He added young talent like rizzo, soler, almora, underwood, villanuve, kendrick, vizciano, & others. We have good talent in the pipeline now, where it was bare before. I feel great about this team long term.I cannot wait for the near future, with wood, shark, castro, baez, maples, and others.

Scotti

Steve, Baez and (especially) Maples are not “near future.” If Baez skips a level, tackles AA in 2013 and then skips Theo’s requirement of 162 AAA games, the earliest you’ll see him is spring 2015. Maples just threw his first professional pitch this week.

You do have Vitters, Jackson and Szczur to look forward to in the next couple of years.

Doug Dascenzo

It makes you realize how much the cupboard was bare when Hendry was around with little to no help at all.

Scotti

Here I would not agree. The system was ranked 8th by BA just before the Garza trade. We gave up Archer, Hak-Ju Lee and Brandon Guyer (all three in our top ten IIRC) for Garza so BA’s rank dropped down to middle of the pack.

Much (not all) of that value is still retained in Garza. And, obviously, many of the system prospects that so many of us are interested in are Hendry guys (Baez, Szczur, Jackson, Vitters, Maples, Vogelbach, etc.).

FWIW, the Ricketts didn’t give Hendry the green light on spending for prospects until the final year of free spending in the draft. So Hendry had two drafts (Samardzija and last year’s draft) where he was given a budget commensurable with other top market teams. TR just gave Theo $36 million to spend on Gerardo Concepcion and Jorge Soler. Obviously that money would have had a better impact spread out over several of the proceeding years drafts/signings (when international talent didn’t go for such a premium).

There’s a semantics argument here, but an important one. Baez, Sczur, Maples, and Vogelbach — by far the better prospects of the 6 you listed — were Wilken picks when Hendry was GM. It seems clear Wilken got whoever he wanted and, as such, the team already started moving in the right direction while Hendry was GM. Where the criticism of Hendry becomes more fair, in my opinion, is to look at the quality of players he brought in via trades or before Wilken took over drafting. Archer was brought in via the DeRosa to the Indians deal. So that one was good. But you really can only identify a couple times where he managed to grab quality major-league-caliber prospects in his deals.

Scotti

So that one was good. But you really can only identify a couple times where he managed to grab quality major-league-caliber prospects in his deals.

To be fair, there were very few seasons where the Cubs were selling at the deadline with a market that was ripe for selling. The Cubs won their division 3 of the first 6 Hendry years and were competitive in two of the other years so the trades he made there were selling our prospects for MLB talent (DLee, ARam, Lofton, Nomar, etc.). Can’t recall him every getting burnt there.

Folks often point to the two Dodger trades (Maddux, Lilly) as times when Hendry got stumped but Maddux was having a bad year (so the return was bad) and Lilly was a salary dump in the middle of MLB recovering from the recession (recessions in MLB trail by a year of the actual recession because of advance ticket sales) so that was, unlike this year, a buyer’s market.

Dan

No-Hitter threw 7 innings (for those of you who turned off this mess of a team).

Drew7

Being no-hit for the 1st time in 47 years would not be a good way to end a day like thid

Drew7

Whew! Way to go, Cardenas…

Njriv

“That’s f*ckin BS man, I F’in had him” – AJ Burnett

baldtaxguy

Has to blame someone. Why would he tio his hat to Cardenas? Burnett is a stroke

baldtaxguy

meant “tip his cap”

Njriv

Way to back up 2nd, Baker.

Mr.Boring

I was not impressed with first trade deadline.

Dempster became a spur under the saddle. I hate to say it because I respect all he has done, but damn it dude. You just went into the A-Ram seat with your boner statements.

Anyway, ……..don’t blame good players for the bad team.

Wish them well and thank Jim Hendry for getting rid of 12 guys on a 25 man roster which won 97 games so he could make room for Milton Bradley. Talk about a turd that won’t flush.

How bad did Hendry loose his fastball?

Dan

Wow… What an ugly game. Not a good way to start off the post Trade Deadline.

Zogie

I call it a trade deadline hangover. 4 cubs leave and the cubs don’t show up against Burnett. Coleman was shaky early and allowed Neil Walker to hit a grandslam to give Burnett an early lead. After the first, the cubs pitching settled down and got out of a few jams. All cubs hitters had a rough night at the plate except for Adrian Cardenas who broke up the no-no in the 7th. That was the cubs only hit. DeJesus, Rizzo both walked. That was the only offense the cubs could get going. Castro hit the ball hard and LaHair just missed a homerun, but other than that the cubs looked lost. Valbuena, Clevenger, and Soriano looked dreadful at the plate. My shout out goes to Adrian Cardenas. The only great AB all night for the cubs. Give the kid a start at 3rd!

http://bleachernation.com RicoSanto

Its a shame, but it had to be done,Those trades pulled the cubs heart out it was obvious tonight.Sveum had them playing great ball.Hopefully they can rebound……Brett Jackson needs to drive on I-80 east to Chicago and say hello to LaHair who should be dring west to Des Moines…Since the all-star break he is hitting .147 with 3 rbi in July. Maybe if he goes back he can get it back together.No one wanted the all-star in a trade

Njriv

I had enough of Coleman, he has had his fair share of chances, its time to take a look at Rusin.

Jimmy james

Haha, my wife said the same thing

North Side Irish

Now this is how you solidify your draft position…

It’s ugly but it is a necessary evil to improve the franchise in the long run. Higher draft picks and bigger draft/international pools are more important than a few more wins this season.

Jared

I’m not certain that the trades had anything to do with how the Cubs played tonight? I don’t think this leads us deeper into the depths of the NL Central…I whole heartedly believe that they will keep playing good ball, not great, but good…pick up some more series wins…Coleman isn’t the answer, obviously, but wasn’t completely horrible, though close!

Separate topic…this site is great!!! I was a definite die hard fan, for a long time…but after “that” playoff game, I hadn’t honestly done anything but check box scores since…thanks to finding Bleacher Nation about 3 months ago, my interest has peaked, and I am finding myself watching the games more, and really getting back into it!!! Thank you Brett!!!

Brian Peters

Yeah, the moves of the last two impacted tonight’s game HOW?!?!?!?! It is silly to have such a thought. Let’s see……..maybe Theo should push the rewind button so the trades didn’t go down. Maybe, magically, the Cubs are actually in first place instead of fifth.

T Wags

I have heard from a strong source that the reason the Cubs looked like a pile of crap today is because the team had a #BNBlogathon party at Ryan Dempster’s crib last night and they all pulled all-nighters follow Brett’s coverage. Now that the madness is over, the team can crash tonight, Brett-style, and will be back to their dominant selves for tomorrows game.

Brian Peters

T wags…….that sounds highly plausible. Lol!!

yoga master

Stop it about Dempter’s old lady.

Leroy K.

ESPN reporting that Jed Hoyer is reporting that Vitters will be called up soon.

That report did not say Vitters will be called up soon. It said he might. Big difference there.

Master Dan

I have a feeling the Cubs will be claiming quite a few players through the waiver wire. The Cubs will be at the bottom of the totem pole, they have the money, and will need to retool for next year and years to come. Is it possible they find a high upside, young player through the waiver wire? My guess is YES!

CubFan Paul

Theo&Co have been using their waiver wire position advantage all season. Adrian Cardenas was Top 15 prospect in the A’s system & we snagged him

Kevin

And that saved us from being No Hit for the 1st time since 1965, btw is the longest streak in the majors.

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